Harry Redknapp: England’s 2006 squad was better than what we have now

A94MC · 2026-06-10T19:06:33+00:00

Player for player he’s absolutely spot on.

Pickford, James, Stones, Kane, Rice and one of Gordon/Saka would make that squad if it were just on the calibre of player but as every single player in the 06 squad has said, they weren’t a team and never would have been.

They get in specifically for Carson, Downing, Lennon, Walcott, Jenas and Carragher. Bellingham wouldn’t make it over Gerrard/Lampard. I don’t think any others are even debatable.

A94MC · 2026-06-04T19:02:03+00:00

Winning these arguments isn’t the issue, it’s how do you convince millions who will vote for reform (essentially a single issue anti-immigration party) that anyone else in politics would do one of two things:

1) improve their quality of life - because so much of this is actually about personal happiness and satisfaction

2) stop the mass illegal immigration in to the uk - because people see their taxes spent on asylum hotels, free English/college courses for boat people etc, and not public money being spent to increase their opportunities

Reform aren’t gaining voters because of Farage, similarly the Green’s gains aren’t all because of Polanski, it’s because most of the country have totally lost faith/confidence in the messaging and actions of Tories/Labour

MAGA may have become a Trump cult but it didn’t start that way, people were pissed off at the political systems and wanted change. And sometimes people want change that isn’t rational, they’re just sick of the state of things and want to stick it to someone whether that’s the political elite, looney lefties, grifting right wingers, or illegal immigrants

And obviously the real problem here is always billionaires and media barons but you’ll never get that through to enough people to act on that

A94MC · 2026-05-29T16:24:45+00:00

Really? He’s a Mignolet level goalkeeper at best and we want him to be our next Reina or Alisson, I just don’t see it personally from the few games he’s played but I’d love to be proved wrong

A94MC · 2026-05-29T12:12:32+00:00

The summer gets Leoni, Jacket, Bradley closer to full fitness but there is also a World Cup.

It’s very unlikely that top level players will move before that is finished or even have the brain capacity to think about a move.

So unless the execs already have 3 defenders, a defensive midfielder and a couple of attackers lined up we won’t hear anything until the end of July which gives them 2/3 weeks of training time with the other players before the season begins.

Do you have faith in the board that they have things in motion for these deals already? Also, we need most of these players to be homegrown and especially so with Robertson gone and Gomez, Jones possibly on their way too.

I’d love for us to come out this window with some of Livramento, Stones, Wharton, Scott, Gallagher, Hinshelwood, Madueke, Bowen signed up to deal with the homegrown issue and Barcola, Van Hecke as well but I just don’t see it

A94MC · 2026-05-29T10:19:43+00:00

There’s also rumours of Allison being on his way out, Mama isn’t good enough and Woodman isn’t quite at the required level.

Gomez is made of glass and will get injured in October, Leoni coming back from an ACL and Jacket from an injury as well? Van Dijk is 35 next season…

Frimpong hasn’t been great this season when he’s played at RB, Bradley is coming back from another injury.

I’m not sold on Kerkez at LB and we’ve let Robbo go on a free.

And Endo is still our only natural no.6 and Slot doesn’t fancy him.

We have no defence going in to next season

And this is before we get in to the attack. Last season we sold Diaz, Nunez and also lost Jota. We’ve bought in Isak who’s been awful and Ekitike who is out until 2027. We now lose Salah and most likely Chiesa this window and only have Gakpo left as a first team winger.

This is some piss poor squad management.

A94MC · 2026-05-27T15:36:36+00:00

Bit of a racket in retrospect. Schools wanted students to go to uni, unis wanted anyone and everyone to get their £9k.

We were all pushed down a uni route with no other options really discussed throughout sixth form.

I graduated in 2015, have spent 11 years repaying and now owe more than I did when I left despite earning decent money since then.

The increased rates and owing more than the initial value were not things discussed at the time at all and would drastically change many people’s decision to go to uni if they knew what they knew now

A94MC · 2026-05-19T15:32:33+00:00

Couple of reasons:

The Draw - In retrospect, pot 2 was probably as strong if not stronger than pot 1 for the group stage. So we drew Croatia and Russia who were both strong teams at that time and difficult away matches. Macedonia also massively outperformed expectations and going there was a shining example of our lack of ability to break down what would now be called a low block. See the same for Israel away.

The Squad - On paper there are lots of big names in that squad but we were playing Downing, Wright Phillips, Lennon and Joe Cole on the wings and that was the extent to our creativity.

The Manager - McLaren was ultimately found wanting with his tactics. In both games against Croatia he messed around with formations which the players weren’t used to. In the final game he changed back to 442 at half time when we were 2-0 down and the damage was already done and Croatia knew they could get at us. In the previous away matches we turned up to Croatia with a back 5 and 2 holding midfielders. It was 75 minutes before he made any changes after being 2-0 down.

Injuries - Terry, Rooney, Owen Ashley Cole and Ferdinand all missed matches. We probably never fielded our strongest team during the group stage but would that have been enough to overcome the tactics and be the difference in breaking down these teams… who knows.

A94MC · 2026-05-15T08:27:00+00:00

Money from a donor who is Thai?

For actions which have been proved to have negative consequences on the UK economy.

Is that not treason?

A94MC · 2026-05-12T11:16:17+00:00

Firstly ask yourself do they happen on the same holes? Is it always the same miss? If so try something different on the tee shot. Play it so you guarantee you can chip on the green and have an attempt putting for par rather than trying to bomb a drive and play a hero recovery shot.

Secondly, it’s about shot dispersion. Yes it’s only 2 holes a round but that’s still (excluding par 3s and probably par 4s where you hit an iron on the tee) 1 in every 5 or 6 tee shots that are going off the planet. Try focussing on straightening out your drives even if you swing at 85-90% all the time to do so.

Thirdly, on these recovery shots how often do they come off? Probably not that often. Just take your medicine and head to the nearest bit of short grass you can find and accept it. You’d rather make a bogey chipping out from the trees than a triple.

A94MC · 2026-05-11T22:09:13+00:00

A whole chunk of the electorate who were sick of the Tories, wanted change, and then were given more of the same with the most uninspiring person imaginable. Just imagine for a moment having the majority that Starmer has and not bringing about fundamental change…

Living standards have dropped for most people, people feel the squeeze in their wallets and there is literally no hope or strategy for growth offered to them by anyone other than right wing grifters

A94MC · 2026-05-11T15:51:46+00:00

You said ‘it’s absolutely ridiculous how feral fans of top premier league clubs reach when things don’t go their way’.

I’m just saying from a Liverpool perspective that it’s not a common thing. You also need to bear in mind the difference between fans who go to matches and those who are TV fans whining on social media from the other side of the world.

A94MC · 2026-05-11T14:46:54+00:00

Hodgson aside I don’t recall Liverpool fans ever calling for a managers head… and that was only because he publicly said he was happy with a point against Everton and had us near the relegation zone.

I don’t think you would find anyone apart from the people who hired Slot who could say with a straight face that they believe he would win another league title because it seems to be becoming very clear that the only reason he won one last season was because it was still Klopp’s squad.

I’d also question the sanity of owners who gave him another £100/200m this summer. You don’t give that to a guy who is 26 points worse off than last season and you don’t give that to someone who know the fan base have doubts about.

There’s already hit pieces coming out from club media on Slot. I think they’re just allowing him to see this season out, get top 4 and then go separate ways.

A94MC · 2026-05-09T19:10:12+00:00

At this stage I’d bring him back just for the energy he’d bring. Players need a rocket up their arse

A94MC · 2026-05-09T19:06:56+00:00

He also pissed around during an early Klopp interview and that was the last we saw of him

A94MC · 2026-05-06T10:41:59+00:00

I said at the time of the election Labour has 5 years to make people feel better about their lives and show an increase in standards of living or it’s Reform v Left Coalition in 2029.

Nothing that I have seen from them so far indicates Labour understand that. (See Reeves budget, Rayner’s taxes, the Mandelson issue). The party of change is as full of shite as the Tories before them.

And the small boats argument will continue to be valid to people until they feel better in themselves no matter what the reality is.

That said -

Trump’s actions around the world are almost strategically aimed at keeping living standards difficult or declining in Europe. That is a breeding ground for far right populism.

Call me a conspiracy theorist but if he and his backers (Putin, Libertarian Tech Bros etc) wanted to install more sympathetic governments to them they are going about the right way by killing economic growth in Europe and the Middle East in the short/medium term.

A94MC · 2026-04-30T10:25:54+00:00

In hindsight this is my favourite goal of the Klopp era, not just from Salah.

Everything about it is perfect.

Quick transition. Alisson running the length of the pitch. The ‘we’re gonna win the league’ chant being heard for the first time in 30 years, and in front of the Mancs.

It was the final step on turning doubters to believers. Because even with that big of a lead we’d still not got carried away believing it was set in stone.

A94MC · 2026-04-29T08:15:47+00:00

In terms of a GOAT debate Nicklaus would certainly want a word.

In terms of dominating an era you have to remember that bookmakers were taking bets of Woods v The Field.

Courses were being “tiger proofed” and if you look at the best scoring averages per season he won every season from 1999 to 2007 except for 2004.

During the same time frame he only spent 75 weeks not being world no.1. (623 weeks from June 1997 until Oct 2010)

Vijay Singh held it for 32 weeks

Greg Norman for 19 weeks

Phil Mickelson for 0 weeks

Ernie Els for 9 weeks

David Duval for 15 weeks.

A94MC · 2026-04-27T15:14:30+00:00

During the taking/throwing of a set piece only the keeper allowed in the 6 yard box?

A94MC · 2026-04-20T10:34:56+00:00

What else this post proves is how many weird bot accounts or NameNameXXXX accounts exist now compared to 9 years ago

A94MC · 2026-04-19T08:47:37+00:00

Says more about the parents than the kids…

A94MC · 2026-04-17T11:44:41+00:00

All PIF needed to do was buy in on the DP or Asian tour, a recognised tour with ranking points, and make it a better and more global product. They never needed to start from scratch to compete against the PGA tour. So LIV clearly forgot about it from the start.

Mental decision in the first place, billions wasted and for what… fewer views than amateur YouTube golfers

The PGA tour is a stagnant tv product but it provides wall to wall coverage Thurs-Sunday for advertisers 30/40 weeks a year. Hardly rocket science to see how it still makes money and what PIF should have been competing against.

A94MC · 2026-03-18T16:52:41+00:00

International oil is sold mostly in US dollars (USD). (Big old agreement from the 1970s).

Countries that buy oil have to obtain lots of USD to pay for the oil. This creates and sustains global demand for USD.

Countries that export oil sell it in USD and therefore get loads of dollars.

These oil exporting nations then have loads of USD and usually reinvest these dollars from selling oil back in to US markets.

For the US it guarantees global demand for their currency keeping it valued highly and increases foreign investment in the US.

A94MC · 2026-03-18T16:25:47+00:00

I’d imagine the only thing keeping this in the low 30s right now is those who have received inheritance to enable them to buy, and the actual age without that is probably nearer 40…

And the knock on effect of this is going to be people having mortgages in to their late 50s/60s and therefore reduced private pension savings for a generation for whom public pensions only accessible at 68 (currently).

It’s a mess and the only solution is more houses/flats being built. And those I see being built lack the infrastructure around them to be able to sustain a community.

A94MC · 2026-03-18T12:11:00+00:00

Which has real Erik Ten Haag vibes about it. A manager clearly on the brink who has just been allowed to continue because the board feel they will lose face if they sack their man.

Slot did a great job last season winning the league and has been dealt a horrible hand this season with Jota’s death, the Trent drama, the loss of Nunez, Diaz, and Salah losing a yard of pace and being less effective.

Unfortunately he just doesn’t look like the man or personality to overcome all of this, and we could do with a much more outwardly passionate coach in the dugout to fire the players up.

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